“Product placement” is a known but non-traditional advertising technique in which products (or in some cases services) are intentionally displayed in movies or television shows. In a conventional product placement advertisement, there is an agreement between the manufacturer of a product and a media company, such as a movie or television production company, where the product manufacturer pays to have one or more products prominently displayed in a movie or television show. In such an arrangement, the product manufacturer is willing to pay product placement fees, particularly in the case of a movie featuring famous actors or a television show which is popular among viewers, in the hopes that viewers will be more likely to buy a “placed” product if it is seen associated or identified with a famous actor, a well-known character (e.g., James Bond), or a popular television show personality. Although often large fees are charged to place products within movies or television shows, it is impossible to measure the true effectiveness of such product placement advertising. Moreover, heretofore there have been no immediate opportunities for a viewer to purchase a product, even if it is perceived as desirable by the viewer, after the product is seen as a result of the product placement.
Similar to “product placement” advertising, although television commercials have been used for decades between television shows and during interruptions of television shows, there has been no way to measure their effectiveness or to directly, immediately monetize a television commercial. Furthermore, with the advent of new technologies, television viewers are now able to skip or pass over television commercials entirely, such as when watching a television program which has been pre-recorded at a viewer's home on a digital video recorder or “DVR” (thus, effectively making commercials useless in some cases).
It is, in certain embodiments, a purpose of the herein described inventions to address one or more of the above drawbacks of product placements and television commercials. It is also a purpose of the herein described inventions to address other drawbacks and/or other desires for improvements in the art, whether or not currently known, which will become more apparent to the skilled artisan once given the present disclosure.